Tag Archives: crab season

The opening of the commercial crab season is traditionally December 1, but this year it was delayed to ensure quality and to work out negotiations between fishermen and processors over price.
While crabbers in Newport agreed to a $2.75 starting price, we were told Friday the offer was not accepted by the majority of west coast fishermen. >click here to read< 16:54

Skinny crabs add stress on local business owners – Scattered crabbing vessels dotted the horizon from Klipsan Beach and along the southwestern Washington coast last Monday. It was the start of the new commercial crabbing season — and possibly, sellers hope, the rebounding of the local market. Pacific Northwest crabbers have already lost over one and a half months’ worth of the crab season. >click here to read<

After enduring the most dismal Dungeness crab season in memory, one that ravaged fishermen and left consumers with the holiday blues, Bay Area crab lovers can put on their party hats. The 2016-17 commercial crab season will begin Tuesday on schedule, state regulators declared this week. The harmful algae blooms that tainted last year’s catch with a neurotoxin known as domoic acid have receded to normal levels along most of the California coast. That means Bay Area consumers will in all likelihood have crab for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, and fishermen will begin to recover from a brutal 18-month period in which a delayed and abbreviated crab season was sandwiched between two poor Chinook salmon seasons. “We’re just excited to get back out there,” said Devin Bunch, Read the story here 13:43

Should California’s four-year drought break, causing rivers to run, next year’s crab season could be worse than the 2015-2016 season. The industry has, so far, lost at least $48 million in revenue for crab fishermen statewide, according to information presented at the Joint Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture hearing last Thursday, April 28 in Sacramento. Dr. Raphael Kudela and his colleague, Dr. William Sydeman, senior scientist with the Farallones Institute Team, fear if this season is followed by enough rain to end the drought, the rivers will run, bringing rich nutrients to the ocean. The algal bloom will then feed off the nutrients and, according to Kudela, be 400 percent more toxic than it was this year. There is a chance, however, that a La Nina weather pattern could be cool enough to make the algal bloom dissipate. As Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker drags her feet on disaster relief. Read the rest here 13:52

Fishermen admit the delay is inconvenient, and came at an inopportune time, but are realistic about the delay, and know it’s just part of the industry. “It’s nothing new to us,” said Brett Webb, a Port Orford port commissioner and fisherman. “Anyone who doesn’t expect a delay should probably reconsider their expectations.” Bernie Lindley, a Brookings-Harbor fisherman, said the season may still prove to be a difficult one for fishermen on the south coast, as much of the crab is expected to be up in the Coos Bay area. Read the article here 22:23

The North Coast is undeniably crab country. Our traditionally cold coastal waters have been perfect for producing some of our nation’s healthiest crab harvests. This harvest, a time-honored tradition since the mid 1800s here in Northern California, represents a change of season.,, So, when North Coast crab tested with high levels of a naturally occurring toxin, fishermen, industry leaders and public officials all came together, as partners, to call for a delayed opening to the crab season to ensure the public’s safety. Read the article here 17:10

Being the sole proprietor of his commercial fishing operation for the last three years, Eureka resident Bob Borck said one of the important skills of the job is being able to live with uncertainty. While he’s seen delays in the Dungeness crab season caused by price disputes or meat quantity requirements, Borck said the indefinite delay caused by the presence of a potent neurotoxin along the entire West Coast is making the prospects of this season unclear. “We’ve never been here before,” he said. “There is no real way to tell.” What Borck does know is that he still needs to pay the bills — not only for moorage and insurance for his fishing vessel,.. Read the article here 08:34

This was supposed to be the winter Braeden Breton finally realized his dream of running his own crab fishing boat. After putting down $7,500 in April toward a commercial permit, he was counting on earning enough money as a deckhand this fall to pay off the rest and begin setting his own traps after the new year. Now the indefinite postponement of the commercial Dungeness crab season has thrown that plan into disarray. Like hundreds of other fishermen in the Bay Area, Breton finds himself scrambling to pay the bills. Read the rest here 10:36

The California Fish and Game Commission voted Thursday to delay opening of the crab-fishing season as officials scramble to deal with a coastal algae bloom that’s left Dungeness crabs with a potentially fatal toxin called domoic acid. Meeting by conference call, the commission voted 3-0 to delay the recreational crabbing season, which was supposed to begin Saturday. The opening of the commercial crab fishing, which is supposed to open Nov. 15, is up to the director of the Department of Fish and Wildlife. Read the rest here 12:41

First it was the ice, and now frigid water temperatures are causing more problems for Cape Breton crab fishermen. Main-a-Dieu fisherman Joe Forgeron isn’t worried about meeting his 285,000-pound quota by season’s end on Sept. 1, but he figures it may take longer than last year.Forgeron, who fishes out of Louisbourg, said the colder-than-average water temperatures translate into slower-moving crab, which means smaller-than-average catches. “This season’s been all right, but, Read the rest here 15:00

Newport News, Va., Daily Press – Michael Diggs of Poquoson has been a waterman for more than 40 years, and says the blue crab harvest as the 2013 season kicks in is slim pickings. “Oh, Lord, things are tight,” Diggs, 62, said Monday. “One good week — since then, it’s been downhill.” During the first week of the crab season in mid-March, he said he was catching 25 to 30 bushels a day around Buckroe and Grandview. His haul dropped rapidly to seven or eight bushels. continued

This crab season opened up to a rocky start this week with fishermen upset over the price of crab. Harvesters are angry that the price-setting panel sided with processors in establishing the price at $1.83 per pound. continued Listen to the call in discussion about this issue here with John Furlong and Union Chief Earl McCurty. audiohere

NILS STOLPE: The New England groundfish debacle (Part IV): Is cutting back harvest really the answer?

While it’s a fact that’s hardly ever acknowledged, the assumption in fisheries management is that if the population of a stock of fish isn’t at some arbitrary level, it’s because of too much fishing. Hence the term “overfished.” Hence the mandated knee jerk reaction of the fisheries managers to not enough fish; cut back on fishing. What of other factors? They don’t count. It’s all about fishing, because fishing is all that the managers can control; it’s their Maslow’s Hammer. When it comes to the oceans it seems as if it’s about all that the industry connected mega-foundations that support the anti-fishing ENGOs with hundreds of millions of dollars a year in “donations” are interested in controlling. Read the article here